A huge-selling 70s American car you just don't hear much about these days, the Ford Granada (and its Mercury sibling, the Monarch) was once a common sight. You could get the Granada (not to be confused with the European Ford of the same name) with a 302 or even 351W, and of course it was rear-wheel drive. Ford based a number of marketing campaigns on the idea that the Granada was really a Mercedes, only at 1/5 the price. Sadly, they were ugly, slow, unreliable and sucked gas. But with a cheap, easy-to-find rear-wheel-drive platform that can take a V8, plenty of 1975-80 Granadas and Monarchs have been turned into respectably quick machines. – Murilee Martin

American Ford Granada, Mercury Monarch/Cougar & Lincoln Versailles Owners Club [americangranada.com]

Related:
Huge Bigness: Hecklerspray on the Ford Granada Mk. 2 [internal]

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